r-builds

This repository orchestrates tools to produce R binaries obtainable from: https://cdn.rstudio.com/r. The binaries are available as a community resource, they are not professionally supported by RStudio. The R language is open source, please see the official documentation at https://www.r-project.org/.

These binaries are not a replacement to existing binary distributions for R. The binaries were built with the following considerations:

• They use a minimal, documented set of build and runtime dependencies.
• They are designed to be used side-by-side, e.g., on RStudio Server Pro.
• They give users a consistent option for accessing R across different Linux distributions.

These binaries have been extensively tested, and are used in production everyday on RStudio Cloud and shinyapps.io. Please open an issue to report a specific bug, and address questions on RStudio Community.

Example Usage

These binaries are designed to be copied onto a server, as opposed to installed using a system package manager like apt or yum. This approach allows administrators to offer multiple versions of R side-by-side.

# Install runtime pre-reqs
# Then copy the desired R version from the CDN

OS_IDENTIFIER=ubuntu-1804
R_VERSION=3.5.3

wget -O R-${R_VERSION}.tar.gz https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/${OS_IDENTIFIER}/R-${R_VERSION}-${OS_IDENTIFIER}.tar.gz 
mkdir -p /opt/R 
tar zx -C /opt/R -f ./R-${R_VERSION}.tar.gz 
rm R-${R_VERSION}.tar.gz

# execute R from this directory
/opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin/R -e 'capabilities()'

# optionally add this version to the path
PATH=/opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin:${PATH}

# OR optionally link the binaries to /usr
ln -s /opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin/R /usr/bin/R 
ln -s /opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin/Rscript /usr/bin/Rscript
ln -s /opt/R/${R_VERSION}/lib/R /usr/lib/R 

The R binary can be obtain from the CDN using a URL with the format:

https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/<OS_IDENTIFIER>/R-<R_VERSION>-<OS_IDENTIFIER>.tar.gz

The list of currently available R versions can be obtained here: https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/versions.json.

The following operating systems are supported:

Operating System	OS Identifier
CentOS 6	centos-6
CentOS 7	centos-7
Debian 9	debian-9
OpenSUSE 15.1	opensuse-15
OpenSUSE 42.3	opensuse-42
Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial	ubuntu-1604
Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic	ubuntu-1804

The R binaries are built on these open source containers, but have been tested on their commerical equivalents. For example, the CentOS binaries also work on RedHat Enterprise Linux (REHL) and the OpenSUSE binaries also work on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES).

Please see r-docker and r-system-requirements for more information on using these binaries. The r-docker repository documents required runtime system dependencies and provides users with docker images containing these dependencies. The r-system-requirements repository contains information on the additional system dependencies that may be required to install and use R packages.

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Developer Documentation

This repository orchestrates builds using a variety of tools. The instructions below outline the components in the stack and describe how to add a new platform or inspect an existing platform.

Adding a new platform.

Dockerfile

Create a builder/Dockerfile.platform-version (where platform-version is ubuntu-1604 or centos-74, etc.) This file must contain four major tasks:

1. an OS_IDENTIFIER env with the platform-version.
2. a step which ensures the R source build dependencies are installed
3. The awscli, most likely installed via pip for uploading tarballs to S3
4. COPY and ENTRYPOINT for the build.sh file in builder/.

docker-compose.yml

A new service in the docker-compose file named according to the platform-version and containing the proper entries:

command: ./build.sh
environment:
  - R_VERSION=${R_VERSION} # for testing out R builds locally
  - LOCAL_STORE=/tmp/output # ensures that output tarballs are persisted locally
build:
  context: .
  dockerfile: Dockerfile.debian-9
image: r-builds:debian-9
volumes:
  - ./integration/tmp:/tmp/output  # path to output tarballs

Job definition

IN serverless-resources.yml you'll need to add a job definition that points to the ECR image.

rBuildsBatchJobDefinitionDebian9:
  Type: AWS::Batch::JobDefinition
  Properties:
    Type: container
    ContainerProperties:
      Command:
        - ./build.sh
      Vcpus: 4
      Memory: 4096
      JobRoleArn:
        "Fn::GetAtt": [ rBuildsEcsTaskIamRole, Arn ]
      Image: #{AWS::AccountId}.dkr.ecr.#{AWS::Region}.amazonaws.com/r-builds:debian-9

Environment variables in the serverless.yml functions.

The serverless functions which trigger R builds need to be informed of new platforms.

1. Add a JOB_DEFINITION_ARN_PlatformVersion env variable with a ref to the Job definition above.
2. Append the platform-version to SUPPORTED_PLATFORMS.

environment:
  # snip
  JOB_DEFINITION_ARN_debian_9:
    Ref: rBuildsBatchJobDefinitionDebian9
  SUPPORTED_PLATFORMS: ubuntu-1604,ubuntu-1804,debian-9

Makefile

In order for the makefile to push these new platforms to ECR, add them to the PLATFORMS variable near the top of the Makefile

Submit a Pull Request

Once you've followed the steps above, submit a pull request. On successful merge, builds for this platform will begin to be available from the CDN.

"Break Glass"

Periodically, someone with access to these resources may need to re-trigger every R version/platform combination. This quite easy with the serverless tool installed.

serverless invoke stepf -n rBuilds -d '{"force": true}'